Sunday Morning for Sunday 3 June 2018

7:11 US-North Korea see-saw summit back on 

Donald Trump's summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-un in Singapore is back on, scheduled for June 12. While it's difficult to know its scope, Professor Al Gillespie discusses what North Korea may get out of any commitment to denuclearise the peninsula. 

7:20 WWF's goal to blockchain tuna production

This time last week we talked to former police detective Tim McKinnel, now an investigator for Greenpeace NZ. Greenpeace had released a report called "Misery at Sea" that included horrific photos and videos of inhumane conditions on Taiwanese tuna longliners - slavery, people trafficking and physical abuse. McKinnel talked about hope in new blockchain technology that tracks the origins of tuna from the sea to your plate. A surprising group is already involved in this. WWF New Zealand is working towards tuna production to be part of the blockchain, at this stage in Pacific waters. Its NZ CEO Livia Esterhazy explains. 

7.30 The House

This week Daniela Maoate-Cox speaks to MPs in their first term to find out what it's like on a select committee.

7:45 Hundertwasser Art Centre construction to finally begin

After 25 years of setbacks, the Hundertwasser Art Centre in Whangarei is finally going to start. On June 1 the government announced it would inject another $6.9m into the project. There is still more money to be found to see the project to completion but Grant Faber, chair of the Whangarei Art Museum is confident the shortfall will be found - especially since the Trust has previously raised almost $22 million.  Work is now set to begin on June 11. 
Donations towards the project can still be made here.

8:10 Insight: Abortion in America

The issue of abortion has taken on a new urgency in the US since the election of President Donald Trump. Philippa Thomas is in Washington for the BBC's World Service to speak to lobbyists on both sides of this issue, and to visit the Supreme Court and watch as nine judges hear the latest major abortion case.

8:36 Do Kiwis still care about GE free?

The road to New Zealand becoming GE Free was hard fought. In 2003, thousands marched to show their opposition to Genetically Engineered foods and animals. New Zealand now has some of the strictest laws around genetic engineering in the world. But as technology changes do we still care about it? Jon Carapiet is national spokesman for GE-Free NZ.

9:06 Mediawatch

Colin Peacock looks at the media response to the government's big call this week on our national cattle disease crisis. Plus a pair of political polls that excited the pundits.

9:37 This is Todd Niall

One of radio’s most recognisable broadcast voices, Todd Niall from RNZ, is hanging up his microphone and heading into a new realm - working for Stuff. He talks about his 37-year career at RNZ in which he specialised in Auckland issues and the America’s Cup. What’s changed in radio in his time in the job? How hard is to get to the heart of the story in world full of communications professionals?  And what’s with his love for the Fiat Bambina and the Trekka?

10.04 How fair is the funding for high-needs students?

In 2016-17 more than 9000 high-needs students around New Zealand were funded by the Ministry of Education through its "Ongoing Resourcing Scheme" or ORS.   ORS support subsidises the wages for teacher aides to help educate the children with the highest and most complex learning needs. The average number of children receiving ORS funding is just over 1 percent of the school-aged population. But Greerton Village Primary School in the Bay of Plenty has 6.2 percent of its 380 Decile 2 students requiring ORS funding. It runs a successful inclusive education programme - but it could be the victim of its own success, attracting special needs students from around the region. The Ministry has told the school it will need to find  the extra $118,000 it needs to fund its teacher aides. The principal of Greerton Village Primary School is Anne MacIntosh and Erika Harvey is the parent of an autistic daughter at the school.  Erika's "Dear Jacinda" Facebook video says the funding model needs to be addressed all over the country.

10.33 Reb Fountain: more hopeful now  

Singer songwriter Reb Fountain has been celebrating a double win at the NZ Country Music Awards announced this week. She won the 2018 APRA Best Country Music Song for "Hopeful and Hopeless" and the Recorded Music NZ Best Country Music Artist Tui for the EP of the same name. But the celebration has a tragic backstory. The Hopeful and Hopeless was recorded live at Auckland's Wine Cellar in 2014, and involved Reb's long-time music collaborator Sam Prebble. It was to be the last time Reb would share the stage with Sam.

 

10:50 Golden Guitars: who’s plucking good?

Wallace catches up with Lana Stevens, a finalist two sections of this weekend’s Golden Guitars annual awards festival in Gore. The event has run for the past 44 years in what’s considered the country music capital of the country.

11.04 Michael Ondaatje: literary powerhouse still in love with the pen

Michael Ondaatje is an acclaimed author and poet born in Sri Lanka, who has spent most of his life in Canada. His seminal novel The English Patient (1992) won both the Booker Prize, and the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction and became a huge best seller. It was made into a film winning 9 Academy awards. This week The English Patient was named among the five books on the shortlist for the Golden Man Booker Prize, a one-off award for Man Booker Prize's 50th anniversary celebrations. In his latest novel Warlight, Ondaatje explores the aftermath of WWII in London through the story of an abandoned brother and sister. The Washington Post described it as a quiet masterpiece.

11:33 Neville De Villiers: mutiny, pirates and mysterious night lights

Dr Neville De Villiers is living the quiet retired life in Ruakaka, 30 kilometres south of Whangarei. Until 2014, he was the local GP but these days the 81-year-old spends his days playing golf and going out fishing in his beloved boat, the Doumar. He’s also had time to write a book “Doumar and the Doctor” based on his sailing log books, that tells of how the Oxford-educated doctor sailed to NZ from England on a 31-foot sloop in 1981, and has been here ever since.